Spirit Ch. 08

The persons, places, entities, and events depicted in this story are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, places, entities, or events is unintentional and purely coincidental.

Warning Some stories may contain adult language, explicate violence, adult situations, and some sexual content. These stories are intended for a mature audience.

Fragmented Pieces Book I Spirit

Written by Stacy James Meadows

With Concepts Created by Stacy James Meadows, Larry William Van Hoorebeke, and Donald Edward Van Hoorebeke.

Previously on Fragmented Pieces Book I Spirit... We were introduced to Steven "Shadow" MacGraw a government agent who we saw had a night off from work, performed a ritual pagan circle, astral traveled, went to sleep, and woke up to head to work. Then we were introduced to Jason Chambers, who killed three women and was in jail. Due to lack of evidence of the crimes he was placed under house arrest. He was then thinking back and eventually fell asleep, to wake up the next morning to due house work. Meanwhile, an evil spirit was released from its prison and began to cause havoc with a hoard of black widow spiders in his command. Also, a mysterious masked man and laughing blond woman began going on a murder spree on the highway. We will now join as the police department are beginning to discover the mysterious masked man and laughing blond woman's work.

Chapter Eight

"Prime Suspect"

Deputy Officer Steven Mockery was on his way down the old highway to visit a dear old friend. In the lag time of not really being on duty, but not quite being off duty, he was still cruising in his squad car and still in uniform, though after a full days work the uniform wasn't quite as crisp and clean as it normally would be. In fact, dirt still clung to the knees in his pants where he had to chase after and tackle a young man, who had been pushing drugs on a street corner, harassing people around to buy them, which caused a few to call the law on him, and tried to run away when he showed up. Not only the drugs were found, but after handcuffing and searching the young man, he also found an illegal switchblade knife, which had been stashed inside his sock, and had blood stains on it. There had been some stabbing incidents recently, and this could've been the weapon used.

Deputy Mockery had been on the police force for a little over three years now, and though not much happened usually in these small towns around here, he had already seen more than his fair share of crime and death during his tour of duty as an officer of the law. In fact, way more than he ever did while he served in the military.

His dear old friend Alex and him had been friends since the second grade, having shared the same class that year. All through the rest of their school years together, they had kept a competitive edge with one another, but Alex always managed to make the honor rolls, where Steven had struggled just to maintain a C average. They even played football together in junior high and high school, and in their junior and senior years of high school helped their team win the state championship twice. Steven had tried his best to excel in football, in a vain hope to gain a college scholarship, but even there, Alex, and not Steven, was the one to get the college scholarship.

Semi-disappointed, but not totally discouraged, Steven enlisted in the military, and went U.S. Army Infantry. Steven was determined to make the Army work for him, and earn his college degree the hard way. He found he excelled at it. Soon, on his first try, he managed to gain the Expert Infantryman's Badge, and then earned his Ranger status to finally go Airborne. Though he liked and excelled at it, at the end of his four year enlistment term he decided to go on to college, but being a Corporal he had to enlist in the reserves. He came home and attended his local community college and served in the U.S. Army Reserves. So far he had served a distinguished military career, but he had yet to see any military combat action, and most likely never would.

Upon returning home, he had found out that his friend Alex had already completed college, and was now working as an assistant lawyer for a local law firm. Hearing about an opening in the local police force, while he was still attending college, though his grades weren't that great, Steven used his exemplary Army records to become a police officer, in which, he seen a lot more action then he ever did in the military. So after dropping out of college all together (for now), and going through the police academy training, which was fine by him, and reminded him a little of the army, he became a local police officer. Jokingly, with his friend Alex, shortly after being accepted, he had said, "I lock them up, and most times you'll try to get them out."

Now after a little over three years of being on the force, his friend Alex was an actual lawyer for the local law firm he worked for, but rarely did he ever get a case in which Steven had been the actual arresting officer, though they still joked about it often. Who knows, maybe the drug pushing punk he had arrested today would end up being Alex's case.

Though they both were often busy, they still managed to meet together everyday, Monday through Thursday, for an hour or so after work. They would sit on Alex's porch, and talk, while drinking ice cold lemonade, made by Alex's wife, Cheryl, and playing a game of chess, which eight times out of ten Alex would win, though Steven sometimes though rarely surprised him. On Fridays, which was Poker night, they would actually meet at Steven's house, along with some others, to actually drink beer and smoke cigars, while they played cards. On Saturdays, which was bowling night, everyone who played cards would meet again at the bowling alley in the afternoon, to continue drinking beer and smoking cigars, while they either bowled a game or two, or shot some pool. Occasionally, on Sundays, when they were both off from work, and the weather permitted, after church they would go play a round of golf together, though Alex was a lot better at the game then Steven was. In fact, Alex had started playing when he had joined the law firm, while Steven was serving his country in the military, and sometimes played during the week with either clients or other lawyers. Alex had coerced Steven into playing upon his return, but having a few extra years of practice over him usually always won.

Today was just Tuesday, however, and it would be just another day of playing a quick game of chess on Alex's porch, or so he thought. Little did he know that all of that was about to change, and he would not get the chance to see his dear old friend and match wits with him today.

From a distance still, he saw the car on the side of the road. At first, he thought nothing of it, but as a police officer, on duty or not, it was still his duty to check it out, and to make sure that no one was in dire need of help. So far from this distance the car appeared abandoned.

As he got closer, however, he began to notice a body lying in front of the car. As he slowly began to realize what it was, he hit his lights, and radioed back to headquarters' dispatch about what he now saw.

"Base this is Deputy Mockery. I was on my way home down the old highway, and I have run into a situation here. A car is on the side of the road, and what appears to be a body is in front of it. I have pulled up behind the car now. How should I proceed? Over."

He pulled up behind the now obviously wrecked car, and parked, while waiting for a reply. A reply came back shortly that other officers were now on their way to his location.

"Deputy Mockery, proceed with extreme caution, and be advised that Deputy Martin is on his way to your vicinity, and should be there in about ten to fifteen minutes, and others should be arriving in about thirty minutes. Investigate the area, and keep us posted. Over."

"I copy that. Over and out." Steven replied back.

Steven recognized Jennifer's voice and was glad it was someone familiar to him. Besides he had a slight crush on the gorgeously bodacious brunette. He had also worked with Deputy Daniel Martin many times before.

Danny, as Deputy Martin liked to be called by his friends, when not on duty, was very serious about his job, and didn't take any bull from anyone. Steven guessed that was why he liked working with Danny, because they shared the same work attitude and ethics. Danny's father, Christopher Martin Jr., was well known in the community as being the Vice President for a major oilfield company, and to top it off made a fortune playing the stock market. He also knew that Danny had three sisters, and that he was the only son, though he was the oldest of them all. Though he was the only son, and the matter of carrying on the family name fell on him, he had already fulfilled that obligation by marrying his high school sweetheart, Margaret, and together they shared the blissful joys of parenthood by raising their now two year old son, Joseph, who was Danny's pride and joy.

Little did Steven realize that he had been to busy thinking about other things during his drive that he missed something that the now alert Danny would soon find, which would not allow him to make it in those ten to fifteen minutes as promised.

Now Steven surveyed the wreckage scene. He would look around and radio back any important details he could find, until back up arrived. First though, to check the body. Maybe, whoever it was, would still be alive, though from what he could tell, from the little bit that he had seen, he very much doubted it.

Steven got out of his squad car, surveying the wreckage scene as he went. The civilian car was just behind a tree, but as Steven got closer to the front of the car, he noticed that the car had, in fact, been rammed into the tree, just as Steven had suspected. Also, from this vantage point he began to make out the legs he had seen. Apparently, it was men's shoes and blue jeans.

Thinking that maybe the "dude" had hit the tree, and not been wearing his seatbelt, had been thrown through the front windshield, Steven glanced through the driver's side window at the windshield as he made his way around the vehicle, to find that the windshield was still intact, though it was cracked up in some places. Coming around now to the front of the car he confirmed this, but this time also noticed that the side of the car was scratched up as if another car had forced this one off of the road. The scratches looked rather fresh to Steven, for they showed no signs of rust setting in yet, and the paint from another vehicle still lingered onto the car as well.

Finally, he made it to the very front of the car where the body was lying on its back. A couple of crows who had been snacking on the body were startled into flight, squawking loudly at the intrusion to their meal as they left. The man was most obviously dead, and had been for quite some time. The body now laid in a dried up pool of its own blood and bodily fluids, as flies swarmed around the body, and even ants were forming lines and carrying off pieces of the poor guy.

The stench of the rotting flesh tried to overcome him, but Steven ignored the smell and took a closer look at the body. The victim had several cuts as if it had been hacked up with a knife. It also looked like the body had been dragged out from the forest, and then dropped and left. The victim's hands and arms were above his head, and his back was perfectly straight. Obviously he had been dragged by his feet.

Even though the body had been obviously murdered, that was not what bothered or disturbed Steven the most. No, what bothered Steven was the length of time this scene had set unnoticed on the side of the road. How come no one reported this in before now? Sure this was a rather deserted section of the old highway, and he guessed if anyone did come through here at a normal rate of speed and wasn't paying much attention to detail might think that the car was just parked there, but he would think that someone would have noticed it way before now.

Well, he had better report these few findings into dispatch, he quickly decided, as he pulled out a sheet of paper from a pocket notebook and a pen, and quickly copied down the license plate number of the car, along with its color, year make, and model. He then briefly wrote up notes on his few findings that he would obviously have to add on to the report, that he undoubtedly would have to fill out later and turn into the main office.

"Well, we'll just see who this car belongs to. Maybe, with any luck, it was the killer's, and the killer had run off from the scene of the crime because of fear of being discovered." Steven thought aloud to himself, as if he was actually talking to the already decaying corpse. He quickly dismissed this first thought out of his head just as soon as he spoke it aloud because the car had obviously been forced off of the road. "Or, at least, maybe discover who the victim really is, because I don't want to mess up any of the evidence until the detectives get here. So I won't have to search the body in this obvious murder case. That makes my job a lot easier. I just sit here to ensure that the crime scene is undisturbed, set up crime scene tape all around the area, fill out my report, and just wait for the detectives to get here."

Steven briefly wondered what was taking Danny so long to get here as he made his way back to his patrol car and radioed in his surveyed report of the grizzly murder scene, emphasizing that it was a case of obvious murder, and that detectives should be called onto the scene. Just as he finished up his report, and was advised to make sure no one contaminated the scene, by putting up crime scene tape around the area and making sure no one crossed over it, which Steven had already known he had to do, but the dispatchers had to make it official, Danny Martin chimed in with a report of his own. Steven was just about to ask about Danny when Danny's own words cut him off, and instead of keying the mike, he hung it back up and just listened to Danny's report.

Danny had been driving with his eyes more alert than Steven's had been. He had surveyed the road ahead for the signs of where Deputy Mockery was now at. He never found them, but instead found a woman's dead body just off to the side of the road. Danny quickly pulled over to take a closer look, hoping that his eyes had been deceiving him, and that it was just a torn up bag of trash or something. His eyes had not unfortunately been deceiving him, however. The lady's body looked to have been cut up and then ran over. The body looked rancid, its guts spilled out everywhere on the ground, and the clothes it wore torn to shreds. Flies swarmed over the body lying in its own already dried up bodily fluids, and the smell of rotted flesh filled Danny's nose.

Though Danny had seen death before, it had never been quite like this, and the sensory overload was just to much for him to take. He backed away from the body and immediately puked his guts out. So much for that expensive lunch he had, which was now being sprayed all over the ground.

After a minute or two of shock recovery and breathing in fresh air, he managed to get back into his police cruiser just in time to hear Deputy Mockery's report on what he had found at the originally discovered crime scene. Covered in sweat from the mid-afternoon sun he turned on the cruiser's air conditioner and tried to cool himself off as he listened to Deputy Mockery's report. As soon as Deputy Mockery finished he had chimed in with his own report.

After hearing both of the reports, Jennifer chimed in to tell them that Detective Jones would be to each of their crime scenes in about thirty minutes to an hour. The two deputies would have to secure the crime scenes they had found until then.

Using his personal cell phone, after applying crime scene tape around the entire area, Steven called Alex and told him that he wouldn't be able to play chess today because he was still on duty, and promised that if and when he could he would definitely fill Alex in later on what actually happened here today. Unfortunately, it would be a long while before he could let Alex know what actually happened here today. Alex understood, explaining that it was no big deal, and that work came first, and as for what was going on he understood keeping the facts under wraps, after all he was a lawyer. They wished each other a good night with promises to meet maybe again tomorrow.

After the phone call, Steven began to work on his report, while he sat and waited. Occasionally a car would go by, and it again would bother him about how long this scene had went unreported. Thinking thoughts about if something were to happen to him, how long before someone would find him. Some how this depressed him some, and he tried to work on his report, but kept going back to those depressing thoughts.

Detective Richard Jones first arrived to where Deputy Martin and the mangled woman's body was. He pulled up to the squad car, which was flashing its lights, but not blaring the siren, in his unmarked car. Grabbing his instant Polariod camera and investigative evidence collector's bag, he got out of his car, and noticed that Deputy Martin had already reached the door of his car.

"It's not pretty. I can't make myself look at it again. In fact, I lost my lunch right over there." Deputy Martin replied, pointing a finger in the general direction, but not daring to look.

"That's all right Deputy. You've done a fine job. You're still green under the collar. The first few years of doing this, it is very hard to cope with death. I've been doing this for years now, so I've learned to overcome the nausea, but it's still hard to welcome the death that has come for others." The detective said patting the deputy on the shoulder. "Just sit in your squad car and relax. It'll be all over shortly. The meat wagon is on its way here even as we speak."

With that out of the way, the detective began to take several pictures of the body, as the deputy went and sat in his squad car. Ten minutes later the meat wagon showed up, and the detective began to leave to find the other deputy. Before he could leave, however, Deputy Martin approached him one more time.

"Detective Jones, is there anything else you need me to do? If not, I still have some of my lunch on my pant legs, and I would like to go home and change." Deputy Martin asked.

"After the meat wagon gets loaded up there won't be anything left to do, go ahead and head on home. Take the rest of the day off, you deserve it. We're just about wrapped up here, and you are still suffering a little bit from the shock of it all. That's okay it happened to all of us on the force at one time or another. Just go home and relax and I'll let your superiors know, but just make sure you turn in your report first thing in the morning. Okay?" Detective Jones informed the young deputy trying to consol him.

"Thanks Detective Jones." Deputy Martin said as he got in his squad car. He turned off his flashing lights, backed up slightly, and made a u-turn in the street to head back home. Meanwhile, the detective got in his car and continued to drive on to find the next deputy and his crime scene. He secretly hoped that the next deputy wasn't quite as green as Deputy Martin was.

As the detective drove, he thought about the evidence he had found. The tire tracks that went right over the poor girl, which he suspected was already long dead before being ran over, at

least, he had hoped so for her sake, which he had taken pictures of the tire tracks, and even made a plaster cast of the imprints on them.